194 Becent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, Articles, &c. 



fragments of broken pottery. With a force of archers and slingers posted 

 to keep down the rain of missiles from the defenders of the rampart, and 

 perhaps with the help of some such siege contrivance as the classic 

 " testudo " for their protection, all the men available could have been 

 employed in bringing up the material in baskets and throwing it into 

 the ditch, and the filling in would be done very speedily. It may be 

 objected that, in this case, to fill up the whole length of the ditch seems 

 needless labour, as a storming party could have made its attack at one 

 or more selected points. But if suflicient men were available it would 

 be good strategy to compel the besieged to spread their resistance along 

 their whole front, instead of allowing them to concentrate it on particular 

 points of attack. We may safely say that such a mode of assault, if 

 the attacking force were sufficiently numerous, could only end in the 

 ditch being at last filled, and the way cleared for the storming of the 

 rampart." No doubt this is true, but has Mr. Major considered how 

 many hundred thousand half-bushel baskets of earth it would take ta 

 fill the ditch to a depth of 8 or 9 feet, and where on Roundway Down 

 the surface mould could be found to do it with 1 Moreover, if this 

 method of attack had been adopted at Oliver's Camp, surely it would 

 have been also adopted elsewhere, and of this there is no evidence 

 whatever. Moreover, it seems incredible that anyone would deliberately 

 set to work to fill the whole length of the ditch. On one point Mr. 

 Major and the Rev. C. W. Whistler, whom he quotes, are certainly 

 wrong. The " Iron object of unknown use " [Fig. 6 in Mrs. Cunning- 

 ton's paper] is most certainly not " a very evident caltrop." To anyone 

 who has examined the object itself, and compared it with a precisely 

 similar object from the downs near Swindon, in the collection of Mr. 

 A. D. Passmore, it is evident that the four pointed ends of thin iron 

 could never have served the purpose of a caltrop, but were apparently 

 intentionally curved over to meet each other, for some unknown purpose. 

 This is pointed out by Mrs. Cunnington in a letter to the Antiquary 

 of July, 1911, vol. vii,, p. 280, in which she also combats the theory of 

 the filling in put forward by Mr. Major. 

 Kiichard Batt, Clothier, of Devizes. An abstract of his will dated 

 1612 is printed in Wiltshire Times, June 17th, 1911. 



Hmmeline Fisher was the twelve year old daughter of the then 

 Rector of Poulshot. Her mother was a cousin of William Wordsworth. 

 Some of her verses having been shown to the poet he wrote,= "the 

 verses upon the Queen are exquisite and tempt me to ask, though not 

 without hesitation, that as Emmie has, I am told, such a fine feeling 

 for music, she would make an attempt to fit the noble music of " God 

 Save the King" with better and more appropriate words than are 

 ordinarily joined with it. A request to this effect was made to myself 

 from a person high in office. I tried, but could not succeed— your 

 inspired little creature may be more happy in her effort," Emmeline 

 accordingly wrote an improved " God Save the Queen," which appears 

 in the Fortnightly Review, April, 1911, and is reprinted in the Wiltshire 

 Times, June 17th, 1911. 



